Everyone's been wondering when someone will file a video-related copyright lawsuit against Google, but many had assumed the litigation wouldn't start until the YouTube deal closed. But now we know
that at least one lawsuit already is pending, independent of the planned $1.65 billion YouTube acquisition.
In an SEC filing yesterday, Google revealed that its video offering had already
triggered at least one copyright infringement lawsuit. "Certain entities have also filed copyright claims against us, alleging that features of certain of our products, including Google Web Search,
Google News, Google Video, Google Image Search, and Google Book Search, infringe their rights," stated the company.
As of this morning, no further information was available. Google has not yet
responded to MediaPost's request for more information; the Associated Press reported last night that a spokesman said he had no further details.
That's OK. We'll figure it out without Google's
help. Court documents, after all, are public records.
Still, it's odd that the information came out the way it did, buried in an SEC filing--especially because earlier this week, Google CEO Eric
Schmidt actually addressed the possibility of copyright lawsuits without mentioning that Google Video already faces one.
Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Schmidt denied the
rumor Google had set aside $500 million to deal with potential copyright lawsuits that might spring from the YouTube merger. Schmidt reportedly also said that Google respects copyrights and wants to
compensate content owners. Meantime, it looks as if Google's lawyers will be busy for a while yet.
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